Fruit flies and mosquitoes share similar sensory receptors that allow them to distinguish among thousands of sensory cues – particularly heat and chemical odors – as they search for food or try to avoid danger.

Johns Hopkins scientists have uncovered new details of how smelly things create signals in the nose that eventually go to the brain. The findings raise issues about how the process involved has been described for many years in biology textbooks.

Word of the Day

pawl

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.